Chambersburg man enters plea in sex assault of girl, 12

CHAMBERSBURG &GT;&GT; Calvin Eugene Taylor Jr. was one of two sexual offenders to enter into a plea agreement during Wednesday's mandatory arraignments in front of Franklin County Judge Carol Van Horn.

Taylor pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault of a child, which is expected to result in five to 10 years of imprisonment.

Taylor, 21, admitted to Van Horn that he sexually molested a 12-year-old girl on one occasion overnight Nov. 9. According to court documents, he told police that he was not sure if he had done what had been alleged, but stated that he wanted help so that it wouldn't happen again and that he felt he had a problem.

Taylor was not sentenced on Wednesday, in lieu of an assessment from the State Sexual Offender Assessment Board to determine if he would be classified as a sexually violent predator.

The other plea entered Wednesday came from Spendy Durrasaint, against his lawyer's recommendation. Durassaint, 23, was originally charged with rape, statutory sexual assault and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl he met on April 1, but he was able to plead no contest to misdemeanor corruption of minors.

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Durassaint's attorney William Scott Arnoult made a statement that he did not want his client to make the plea. Arnoult said he felt the prosecution's case was weak and that his client just wanted to get out of jail. He stated Durassaint had been segregated from other inmates in jail because of the nature of his alleged crimes for the last month. He also stated that the type of charge Durassaint was pleading to would put the Haitian-born man at risk of deportation when he had only come to the area to work.

Arnoult said that if his client was allowed to be out on bail, he felt Durassaint would not be taking the plea deal.

Durassaint went against his attorney's advice, and was sentenced to time served, restitution of an amount to be determined by the DA's office in the next 30 days, and court costs. Durassaint would not be expected to undergo sexual offender treatment or assessments, because the section of the corruption of minors charge he pleaded to did not involve sexual offenses. He was ordered to have no contact with the victim.

One other plea was scheduled to be made by an alleged sexual offender on Wednesday, however he was unable to after he stated he felt "threatened or coerced" into making a plea deal before changing his mind. Tyler James Butler, 20, allegedly was having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl he had met through Facebook.

During Wednesday's arraignment, he was expected to go through a guilty plea to a count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, giving him an expected sentence of six to 18 years. However, during Van Horn's standard line of questioning to ensure Butler was okay with his decision to make a plea agreement, he said yes to her question of whether he felt threatened or coerced into the plea agreement. After clarifying that he didn't feel threatened, he just felt pressured by everyone to take the plea and not go to trial.

Van Horn said that he needed to discuss further with his attorney and she could not accept the plea agreement until he was certain he was okay with it.

Butler was taken back to Franklin County Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

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